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CONTEMPORARY INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH MCQ Test

75 questions (75 with answer keys)

1. Which essay collection by Arundhati Roy won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2006, an award she declined? (A) Field Notes on Democracy (B) The Algebra of Infinite Justice (C) Capitalism: A Ghost Story (D) Walking with the Comrades

2. Arundhati Roy’s Walking with the Comrades (2011) is an expanded reportage on: (A) The Narmada Bachao Andolan (B) The Maoist insurgency in central India (C) The Kashmir conflict (D) Anti-CAA protests

3. The non-fiction work The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016) is written by: (A) Pankaj Mishra (B) Ramachandra Guha (C) Amitav Ghosh (D) Shashi Tharoor

4. Jeet Thayil won the Sahitya Akademi Award for English poetry in 2012 for which collection? (A) Collected Poems (B) These Errors Are Correct (C) English (D) Gemini

5. The poetry collection Countries of the Body (2006), which won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, is by: (A) Imtiaz Dharker (B) Tishani Doshi (C) Meena Kandasamy (D) Arundhathi Subramaniam

6. The Terrorist at My Table (2006) is a poetry collection by: (A) Sudeep Sen (B) Ranjit Hoskote (C) Imtiaz Dharker (D) Jeet Thayil

7. Vikram Seth’s The Rivered Earth (2011) consists of four libretti set to music by: (A) Philip Glass (B) Alec Roth (C) A. R. Rahman (D) John Zorn

8. The poetry collection When God Is a Traveller (2014), which won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2020, is written by: (A) K. Satchidanandan (B) Tishani Doshi (C) Arundhathi Subramaniam (D) Meena Kandasamy

9. Arundhati Roy’s Capitalism: A Ghost Story (2014) primarily critiques: (A) Caste oppression (B) Free-market capitalism in India (C) Religious fundamentalism (D) Patriarchy in popular culture

10. Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story collection Unaccustomed Earth was published in: (A) 2005 (B) 2008 (C) 2010 (D) 2012

11. In Unaccustomed Earth, the linked stories that follow the lives of Hema and Kaushik appear in which section? (A) Part One (B) Part Two: “Hema and Kaushik” (C) Epilogue (D) Interlude

12. The play Free Outgoing (2007), which revolves around a leaked sex video, is written by: (A) Manjula Padmanabhan (B) Anupama Chandrasekhar (C) Mahesh Dattani (D) Abhishek Majumdar

13. Mahesh Dattani’s Where Did I Leave My Purdah? (2016) is set against the backdrop of: (A) The Emergency (B) The Babri Masjid demolition (C) The Partition of India (D) The 2002 Gujarat riots

14. Muktidham (2015), a play set in a right-wing Hindu monastery, is written by: (A) Abhishek Majumdar (B) Girish Karnad (C) Mahesh Dattani (D) Anupama Chandrasekhar

15. Manjula Padmanabhan’s play Lights Out (2000) deals with: (A) Climate change (B) Bystander apathy towards sexual violence (C) Religious riots (D) A family’s Partition trauma

16. Akhil Sharma’s short story collection A Life of Adventure and Delight (2017) largely depicts: (A) Anglo-Indian communities in Kolkata (B) Indian-American immigrant experiences (C) Rural life in Punjab (D) The IT boom in Bengaluru

17. Janice Pariat’s short story collection Boats on Land (2012) is primarily set in: (A) Mumbai (B) Shillong (C) Chennai (D) Delhi

18. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Unknown Errors of Our Lives (2001) is a collection of: (A) Essays on feminism (B) Short stories about the Indian diaspora (C) Plays about Partition (D) Travelogues

19. Pankaj Mishra’s Age of Anger: A History of the Present (2017) traces modern global resentments back to: (A) The Industrial Revolution (B) The Enlightenment and its critics (C) The Cold War (D) World War I

20. Amitav Ghosh’s The Nutmeg’s Curse (2021) links the climate crisis to: (A) British imperialism in Africa (B) The colonial nutmeg trade and genocide in the Banda Islands (C) The Opium Wars (D) The Suez Canal dispute

21. The essay collection From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia (2012) is written by: (A) Ramachandra Guha (B) Pankaj Mishra (C) Sunil Khilnani (D) Shashi Tharoor

22. Shashi Tharoor’s An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India (2016) argues for: (A) A return to traditional Indian education (B) Reparations for British colonialism (C) Stronger ties with the Commonwealth (D) A federal restructuring of India

23. Arundhati Roy’s The Doctor and the Saint (2017) examines the conflicting legacies of: (A) Gandhi and Nehru (B) B.R. Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi (C) Tagore and Gandhi (D) Vivekananda and Ambedkar

24. The title Azadi (2020) by Arundhati Roy carries the subtitle: (A) Fascism, Empire, Resistance (B) Freedom. Fascism. Fiction. (C) Democracy in Chains (D) A New India

25. The Great Derangement is structured in three sections titled: (A) Earth, Water, Fire (B) Stories, History, Politics (C) Science, Literature, Activism (D) Myth, Memory, Migration

26. Sunil Khilnani’s Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (2016) presents Indian history through: (A) Fifty decisive battles (B) Fifty biographies of notable figures (C) Fifty historical monuments (D) Fifty religious texts

27. Sudeep Sen’s poetry collection Rain (2005) is a sustained meditation on: (A) Urban loneliness (B) Rain across cultures and personal memory (C) Mythological rivers (D) The monsoon economy

28. The collection Vanishing Acts: New and Selected Poems 1985–2005 (2006) is by: (A) Ranjit Hoskote (B) Sudeep Sen (C) Arundhathi Subramaniam (D) K. Satchidanandan

29. Tishani Doshi’s poetry collection A God at the Door (2021) was largely written during: (A) The 2004 tsunami (B) The COVID-19 pandemic (C) The 2015 Chennai floods (D) The 2008 Mumbai attacks

30. Imtiaz Dharker’s Over the Moon (2014) primarily deals with: (A) Sufi mysticism (B) Love, loss, and grief after her husband’s death (C) Climate displacement (D) Partition memories

31. Arundhathi Subramaniam’s Where I Live: New & Selected Poems was published in: (A) 2007 (B) 2009 (C) 2011 (D) 2013

32. In Arundhathi Subramaniam’s When God Is a Traveller, the title poem alludes to which wandering deity? (A) Shiva (B) Kartikeya/Murugan (C) Hanuman (D) Vishnu as Vamana

33. K. Satchidanandan’s English poetry collection While I Write appeared in: (A) 2001 (B) 2003 (C) 2005 (D) 2007

34. Agha Shahid Ali’s Rooms Are Never Finished (2001) is a book-length elegy for his: (A) Father (B) Mother (C) Brother (D) Homeland

35. The posthumous collection of English ghazals Call Me Ishmael Tonight (2003) is by: (A) Jeet Thayil (B) Agha Shahid Ali (C) Keki N. Daruwalla (D) Ranjit Hoskote

36. In Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth, the character Pranab Chakraborty features in the story: (A) “A Choice of Accommodations” (B) “Hell-Heaven” (C) “Only Goodness” (D) “Nobody’s Business”

37. Mahesh Dattani’s The Big Fat City (2012) is a satire on urban greed set in: (A) Delhi (B) Bengaluru (C) Mumbai (D) Chennai

38. The protagonist Nazia in Where Did I Leave My Purdah? is a: (A) Journalist covering Partition (B) Theatre actor who returns after many years (C) Social worker in Kashmir (D) Academic researching gender

39. Abhishek Majumdar’s The Djinns of Eidgah (2014) is set in a children’s ward in: (A) Delhi (B) Kashmir (C) Gujarat (D) Punjab

40. Anupama Chandrasekhar’s When the Crows Visit (2019) is a modern reworking of which Ibsen play? (A) A Doll’s House (B) Ghosts (C) Hedda Gabler (D) The Master Builder

41. Pankaj Mishra’s Bland Fanatics: Liberals, Race and Empire (2020) is a collection of: (A) Travel essays (B) Essays critiquing Western liberalism and imperialism (C) Biographical sketches of Indian liberals (D) Speeches delivered at the UN

42. Ramachandra Guha’s Democrats and Dissenters (2016) is primarily a book of: (A) Political fiction (B) Essays on Indian intellectuals and debates (C) Travel writing (D) Autobiographical memoirs

43. Nayantara Sahgal’s non-fiction work Point of View: A Personal Response to Life, Literature and Politics was published in: (A) 2010 (B) 2013 (C) 2015 (D) 2017

44. Shashi Tharoor’s The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone (2007) is a collection of essays on: (A) Indian wildlife (B) Contemporary India’s transformations (C) The history of Indian technology (D) Indian philosophy

45. Bookless in Baghdad (2005), a collection of literary essays, is by: (A) Pankaj Mishra (B) Shashi Tharoor (C) Amitav Ghosh (D) Sunil Khilnani

46. Meena Kandasamy’s Ms Militancy (2010) is a: (A) Novel (B) Short story collection (C) Poetry collection (D) Play

47. The anthology The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets (2008) was edited by: (A) Sudeep Sen (B) Jeet Thayil (C) Arundhathi Subramaniam (D) Ranjit Hoskote

48. Sudeep Sen edited the anthology The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry in: (A) 2010 (B) 2012 (C) 2014 (D) 2016

49. Imtiaz Dharker’s poetry collection I Speak for the Devil (2001) foregrounds: (A) Political speeches (B) Women’s voices and experiences (C) Ecological themes (D) Translations from Urdu

50. Ranjit Hoskote’s Jonahwhale (2018) reimagines: (A) The myth of Narcissus (B) The biblical story of Jonah (C) The Ramayana (D) The Mahabharata

51. Tishani Doshi’s collection Everything Begins Elsewhere was published in: (A) 2010 (B) 2012 (C) 2014 (D) 2016

52. The four libretti in The Rivered Earth include verses originally composed for: (A) An Indian classical dance performance (B) A series of concerts featuring Chinese bells, strings, and voices (C) A Bollywood film soundtrack (D) A radio drama

53. Arundhati Roy’s essay “The Pandemic is a Portal” (2020) argues that the pandemic offers: (A) A chance for technological surveillance (B) An opportunity to reimagine an equitable world (C) A defence of global capitalism (D) A plea for military preparedness

54. Walking with the Comrades originally appeared in: (A) The New Yorker (B) Outlook magazine (C) The Caravan (D) Granta

55. The epigraph to Unaccustomed Earth is taken from which American author? (A) Ralph Waldo Emerson (B) Nathaniel Hawthorne (C) Henry David Thoreau (D) Walt Whitman

56. Aravind Adiga’s Between the Assassinations (2008) is set in the fictional town of: (A) Malgudi (B) Kittur (C) Mangalore (D) Lumding

57. Anita Desai’s The Artist of Disappearance (2011) consists of three: (A) Plays (B) Novellas (C) Travelogues (D) Long poems

58. Amit Chaudhuri’s short story collection Real Time (2002) is primarily set in: (A) Delhi and Mumbai (B) Kolkata and London (C) Chennai and New York (D) Bengaluru and San Francisco

59. Janice Pariat’s Boats on Land won which literary prize in 2013? (A) Sahitya Akademi Award (B) Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar (C) JCB Prize for Literature (D) The Hindu Prize

60. The short story collection The Adivasi Will Not Dance (2015) by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar focuses on the: (A) Gond community (B) Santhal community (C) Bhil community (D) Munda community

61. Jhumpa Lahiri edited The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories (2019), which features: (A) Forty Italian short stories in translation (B) Her own Italian stories (C) A history of Italian literature (D) Interviews with Italian writers

62. Arundhati Roy’s Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers was published in: (A) 2007 (B) 2009 (C) 2011 (D) 2013

63. Pankaj Mishra’s Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond (2006) is a work of: (A) Fiction (B) Travel and political reportage (C) Literary criticism (D) Autobiography

64. Shashi Tharoor’s Why I Am a Hindu (2018) examines: (A) The history of Hindu architecture (B) Hinduism in contrast to Hindutva (C) The life of Adi Shankara (D) Ayurveda and yoga

65. Amitav Ghosh’s essay collection The Nutmeg’s Curse argues that the climate crisis is rooted in: (A) The industrial policies of independent India (B) The colonial plunder of natural resources and indigenous lifeworlds (C) Overpopulation (D) Defective monsoon patterns

66. The poem “Militancy” appears in Meena Kandasamy’s: (A) Touch (B) Ms Militancy (C) A God at the Door (D) When God Is a Traveller

67. Sampurna Chattarji’s Space Gulliver: Chronicles of an Alien (2015) is: (A) A science-fiction short story collection (B) A verse novel (C) A critical essay on colonialism (D) A play

68. Abhishek Majumdar’s Pah-La (2017) is a play set against the backdrop of: (A) The Naxalite movement (B) Tibet and Chinese rule (C) The Bhopal gas tragedy (D) The 1984 anti-Sikh riots

69. The poetry collection Touch (2006), exploring caste and gender, is written by: (A) Tishani Doshi (B) Meena Kandasamy (C) Arundhathi Subramaniam (D) Imtiaz Dharker

70. Agha Shahid Ali’s Rooms Are Never Finished was a finalist for the: (A) Pulitzer Prize (B) National Book Award (USA) (C) Forward Prize (D) T. S. Eliot Prize

71. Leaving Fingerprints (2009) is a poetry collection by: (A) Sudeep Sen (B) Imtiaz Dharker (C) Ranjit Hoskote (D) K. Satchidanandan

72. The play Harvest (1997) was written by Manjula Padmanabhan. Her 2000 play is titled: (A) Escape (B) Lights Out (C) The Blind King (D) Hidden Fires

73. In Unaccustomed Earth, the story “A Choice of Accommodations” revolves around: (A) A couple attending a wedding in India (B) A man revisiting his school reunion at a boarding school (C) A Bengali family in London (D) A scientist in Antarctica

74. K. Satchidanandan’s later English poetry collection Not Only the Oceans was published in: (A) 2015 (B) 2016 (C) 2017 (D) 2018

75. Arundhati Roy’s The Algebra of Infinite Justice takes its title from a phrase used by: (A) Tony Blair (B) George W. Bush (C) V. S. Naipaul (D) Salman Rushdie

ANSWER KEY

1. B
2. B
3. C
4. B
5. B
6. C
7. B
8. C
9. B
10. B
11. B
12. B
13. C
14. A
15. B
16. B
17. B
18. B
19. B
20. B
21. B
22. B
23. B
24. B
25. B
26. B
27. B
28. A
29. B
30. B
31. B
32. B
33. B
34. B
35. B
36. B
37. C
38. B
39. B
40. B
41. B
42. B
43. B
44. B
45. B
46. C
47. B
48. B
49. B
50. B
51. B
52. B
53. B
54. B
55. B
56. B
57. B
58. B
59. B
60. B
61. A
62. B
63. B
64. B
65. B
66. B
67. B
68. B
69. B
70. B
71. B
72. B
73. B
74. D
75. B